When you’re in the mood for pizza but are short on time, French Bread Pizza has you covered! It’s easy, completely customizable, and a great one to make with the whole family!
If you’ve watched our frozen pizza taste-test video, you know that my family thinks the pickins’ are pretty slim.
But I also understand that not everyone has the time to make a full New York style pizza!
That’s where this easy French bread pizza recipe comes in.
In about the same time it takes you to heat a frozen pizza, you can make a delicious crusty French bread pizza with any toppings your heart desires!
It’s great for game day, after-school snacks, late-night snacks, or even a simple weeknight dinner when paired with a salad.
Recipe Ingredients
All ingredients for this recipe are shown in the pic below and special notes are made in this bulleted list to assist you.
- Bread. A wide loaf of French bread works best here, but you can also use Italian bread, or any other wide loaf.
- Sauce. This recipe is for a very simple sauce using crushed tomatoes. As mentioned before, French bread pizza is easily customizable, so if you want to use a different sauce, such as vodka sauce, go for it!
- Cheese. I love a combination of whole milk block mozzarella and Pecorino Romano, but feel free to use Parmigiano Reggiano as well.
- Oregano. This is a big part of making a pizza taste like a pizza! I prefer to use Sicilian oregano.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to make it
Each number corresponds to the numbered written steps below.
- Hand crush 1 28-ounce can of plum tomatoes or use already crushed tomatoes and drain any excess liquid. Add 1/2 teaspoon of fine sea salt and 1 teaspoon of Sicilian oregano, mix to combine, and set aside. Shred 10-12 ounces of mozzarella and grate 3 tablespoons of Pecorino Romano cheese and set aside. Note: you can see in the pic below how much liquid is in a can of tomatoes. You don’t need to press out all of the liquid, but make sure to remove a good amount of it.
- Preheat the oven to 450f and set the rack to the middle level. Slice in half 1 loaf of French bread and if either side is thicker than 1 inch, press it down with your hands to flatten.
- Grate 2 cloves of garlic and add it to a small bowl with 5 tablespoons of olive oil and use a pastry brush to apply the oil to the both halves of bread. No need to use all of the oil, just try to coat most of the bread. Place the bread onto a baking sheet and bake for 3-5 minutes or until golden.
- Remove the bread from the oven and add the tomato mixture to the bread and cover with the shredded mozzarella.
- Add any additional toppings, such as cupping pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, peppers, onions, etc. Place in the oven to bake for 8 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and dust with the grated Pecorino Romano and bake for an additional 2-3 minutes, or until golden and bubbly. Remove the French bread pizza from the oven and allow it to cool and settle for a few minutes before slicing each half into 4 pieces. Top with fresh basil, if desired. Serve and enjoy!
More pizza recipes
While French bread pizza is great when you don’t have time to make homemade dough, here are a few recipes to save for when you do have time!
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French Bread Pizza
Ingredients
- 1 loaf French bread or baguette, Italian bread, or any rustic loaf
- 1 28-ounce can plum tomatoes hand crushed and completely drained of liquid
- 1 teaspoon Sicilian oregano or Italian
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 10-12 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese weight will vary, but use enough to cover the pizza completely
- 3 tablespoons Pecorino Romano grated
- 5 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic grated
Instructions
- Hand crush the plum tomatoes and drain the excess juice. Save the juice for another use. Add the salt and oregano to the tomatoes and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 450f and set the rack to the middle level. Mix the garlic and olive oil together.
- Slice the loaf in half and if each side is thicker than 1", press down to flatten. Using a pastry brush, coat the inside of both pieces of bread with garlic oil and place onto a baking sheet. Bake for 3-5 minutes or until golden.
- Spread the sauce onto the bread then cover with cheese. Bake for 8 more minutes. Remove the pizza and distribute the grated Pecorino Romano on both sides. Bake until bubbly and golden (about 2-3 more minutes). Remove fromthe oven and let cool for a few minutes. Slice into 4 pieces per side. Enjoy!
Notes
- Use any toppings you like. Sausage, meatballs, cupping pepperoni, and mushrooms all work well.
- There might be some extra sauce leftover.
- Leftovers can be saved for up to 3 days and the pizza can be reheated at 350f on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet until hot.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
My family loved it!
We’re so happy you enjoyed!
It says 5 tbsp olive oil divided but I only see it being used once with garlic?
Hi Sharon, it’s been corrected to remove the word “divided” from the ingredients. Thanks for the comment.
Thanks for reminding us of how easy, delicious, and fail proof a piece of pizza can be. This is the way to go if your favorite part of pizza is the crusty crust!
We’re so happy you enjoyed, Mickey!
Look forward to making this ! Where do you typically source pizza cheese and pepperoni from?
Hi Lee, we hope you enjoy it! We’re able to get our cheese and pepperoni from our local grocery store – Stop and Shop, Whole Foods, and Uncle Giuseppe’s are a few in our area that we frequent.